Desert Research Institute (DRI)

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) is the nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), which is overseen by Chancellor Jim Rogers and a 13-member Board of Regents. DRI is a unique blending of academia and entrepreneurship. From our desert home in Nevada, DRI employs more than 500 faculty, support staff, and students who are engaged in a research enterprise generating approximately $45 million in total annual revenue. At any give time, DRI is engaged in about 300 scientific research projects from our main research campuses in Las Vegas (Southern Nevada Science Park) and Reno (Dandini Research Park), with subsidiary campuses in Boulder City, Nevada and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. DRI's environmental research programs are directed from three core divisions (Atmospheric Sciences, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, and Hydrologic Sciences) and four interdisciplinary centers (Center for Advanced Visualization, Computation and Modelling, the Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management, the Center for Watersheds and Environmental Sustainability and the Frank H. Rogers Center for Environmental Remediation and Monitoring). Grounded in fundamental research, we provide our sponsors and clients with innovative solutions to pressing environmental problems as we balance the need to develop resources while protecting and sustaining the environment. For the people of Nevada, our commitment is the application of our scientific understanding to the effective management of all the State's natural resources while meeting needs for economic diversification and science-based educational opportunities.